quote #48

...getting old is strange business. It's happening to you every minute of every day, and you almost never give it a thought; then, one day, you catch a glimpse of an old friend, or you hear a phrase from an old song, or your eye falls on a solitary sentence in the daily paper, and suddenly, without being able to do a thing in the world about it, you seem to be for a moment outside your own skin, taking one good long look at yourself, exactly as you stand, exactly as you are.

The Edge of Sadness
Edwin O'Connor